A fascinating difference in smartphone buying behaviour got highlighted today. In the US, Apple has double the market share of its nearest competitor, Samsung. However, in The Netherlands, the swamp I call home, the situation is completely reversed; Apple sits at 10% of the smartphone market, Samsung at 19.6%. Is this indicative of Europe as a whole? Could German, French, Polish, British, Spanish, Italian, etc. readers give local information from their own countries? I'm intrigued.

The lone holdout of the national carriers is T-Mobile USA, whose stated position is that subsidies are unhealthy for the industry as a whole. T-Mobile has made many attempts to sell no-subsidy phones in return for a dramatically reduced monthly rate, but have had only limited success thus far.

The problem with T-Mobile is that they sell the no-subsidy phone LOCKED at a higher price than you can buy it from other retailers UNLOCKED.

Even after a phone has been discontinued, T-Mobile still tries to sell it at full release price which is usually TWICE what the market price is selling out the remaining inventory.